Metro uses inauguration as teaching tool

Metro buses and trains are on a regular schedule today, but nine transit police officers have a very unique duty more than 1,300 miles away.

Eight officers and Metro’s assistant chief are in Washington for the presidential inauguration, helping with security and crowd control on the city’s transit system, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority. About 700,000 spectators are expected to converge on DC for the event. Washington officials pay for the travel and lodging for the officers. Metro pays the officer’s salaries, but said the roughly $6,300 cost is money well spent.

Houston Metro Officer Eliot Swainson was credited in 2009 with saving the life of a woman who fell from a train platform in Washington, D.C. He and nine other officers were helping out during Barack Obama's inauguration. Photo: Larry Levine, WMATA

Houston often attracts large events, such as the Super Bowl, that put additional throngs of people on public transit. Having officers versed in crowd control with their experience in Washington for the celebration of President Barack Obama’s second term is helpful, Rodriguez said.

The cost could go to sending officers to a conference to discuss security at large scale events, he said, or to on-the-job work.

Fourteen agencies around the U.S. will join Metro in helping Washington with transit security, Metro officials said. A total of 150 officers are out on the rail lines and at DC stations.

It’s the second time Houston’s transit police have helped out. Officers also assisted with the inauguration four years ago, the first time they were invited.